On the Run?
by Vol lady
Summary: Set four months after "Days of Wrath." Jarrod's client, a difficult man Jarrod doesn't like much, is found murdered shortly after meeting with Jarrod, and Jarrod has left town and the family without a word.
1. Chapter 1

On the Run?

Chapter 1

There were a few of his clients that Jarrod Barkley did not personally like. Some of his more wealthy clients liked to throw their weight around and could be very difficult about taking his advice, actions that often got them into more trouble than the trouble they called him in on in the first place. It was frustrating to work with people like that, but when he could help clean up a mess that might have been mostly of his client's doing, Jarrod felt gratified, especially when anyone else hurt in the fray was calmed and all parties went on to better things.

There were one or two clients who always made trouble worse, simply because they seemed to like it. Andrew Bliss was one of those clients. Bliss – Jarrod always had to laugh at the name. If anyone in the Stockton area was less fitting to his name, Jarrod didn't know who it was. Bliss didn't like bliss. Bliss liked chaos. Jarrod had only caught him in one or two lies through the years, lies he made straight as soon as he was caught, but even when the told the truth, he never entered into a business deal that went smoothly. He always wanted Jarrod to sue somebody and probably would have done all his business that way, but years ago the locals had decided they would not go for it and if Bliss wanted to do business with them, he was going to have to give up his "business by lawsuit" philosophy. Jarrod had managed to help the locals cool him down on that way of life, but you still had to approach every first meeting on an issue by talking Bliss down out of his outrage. Otherwise, you couldn't even get enough sense out of the man to understand what was going on.

Jarrod often thought about dumping him as a client, and when he found the message pushed under his office door that Bliss wanted to see him, he pretty much decided that if the chore he wanted done now was as wild as his chores usually were, he was going to make this his last chore for Bliss. Jarrod had just come in. It was early and even his secretary hadn't arrived, but the note said to come as soon as possible to talk to him about an out-of-town trial. Jarrod muttered to himself, pocketed the message, and went right back out the door, thinking and growling inside so much that he didn't remember he hadn't left a message for his secretary saying where he was going until he was halfway to Bliss's ranch about five miles north of town.

He didn't know how much he was going to regret forgetting to leave that message.

XXXXXXXX

At the end of a long day, the Barkleys had gathered for their time together before dinner. It was getting close to seven when they normally ate, but Jarrod was not home yet so they were planning to delay a little longer. The chat had been idle. The day had been about as plain a day as it could have been. There were no cattle drives in the offing for Nick and Heath, no big fund raisers for the orphanage or any other cause planned for Victoria or Audra. It was just a quiet time, that didn't last.

The knock on the door drew Silas in from the dining room where he was readying the table. Everyone looked up to see who was there – and everyone, including Silas, was a little alarmed to see the sheriff, his hat in his hands. "Good evening, Silas," Sheriff Madden said. "May I come in?"

"Sheriff?" Victoria called, signaling Silas to let him enter.

Silas opened the door further and then closed it behind the sheriff when he came in and went to the living room. Silas went back to his duties in the dining room, but wondered what was going on. As usual, he figured he'd hear about it if the family felt he needed to.

"Fred, what brings you out this late?" Nick asked.

Sheriff Madden looked unhappy. "Trouble, Nick. Andrew Bliss has been killed."

"What?" Victoria said.

"Is Jarrod here?" the sheriff asked.

"No, we were waiting for him," Victoria said. "He went into town very early this morning."

Nobody liked the scowl on Fred Madden's face. "I know he was there, but I haven't been able to find him this afternoon."

Now they were genuinely worried.

The sheriff went on. "He was seen heading out to Andrew Bliss's place early today. Bliss's houseman was the only one around and he let Jarrod in, but then he went out to get some eggs from the hen house. He says he heard Jarrod and Bliss arguing loudly, and then he heard Jarrod ride off in a hurry."

"Fred, you can't possibly think – " Nick started.

The sheriff kept talking right over him. "It wasn't but a few minutes later that John Pitch rode up."

"The telegrapher?" Heath asked. "What would he be doing out there?"

"I talked to John," the sheriff said. "He said he'd gotten an urgent telegram for Bliss from Modesto and he was delivering it himself because he didn't have a runner available and his backup was there to cover the wire but he wouldn't have anything to do with Bliss. John saw Jarrod heading out when he got to Bliss's place. Bliss's houseman says he saw John go in and not three minutes later he came running out, yelling that Bliss was dead."

Concern started rising through the room.

The sheriff went on. "Bliss's houseman – his name is Earl Johnson – he ran in and John ran back in with him, and Bliss was dead on the floor with his head bashed in, looks like with a bookend from his desk. A planter was shattered on the floor, too, like somebody knocked it over or something. Earl stayed there while John came and got me, and that's what I found when I got out there. Have you heard from Jarrod at all today?"

They all knew what he was thinking, their concern made more frightening because they knew Bliss was not one of Jarrod's favorite clients. Victoria shook her head. "No, we haven't heard a word from him or seen him."

"Sheriff, you can't possibly think it was Jarrod who killed Mr. Bliss!" Audra was the first to say it out loud.

The sheriff hesitated. "Of course not, but this isn't shaping up right. Earl heard Jarrod and Bliss arguing, then Jarrod took off, then John arrived and found Bliss dead. Those three men are the only ones who were around this morning. All of Bliss's hands were out in the field. So I have three men who could have been involved with Bliss's killing, and Jarrod's the last one Earl heard talking to Bliss and they were arguing. And then Jarrod rode away fast and hasn't been heard from since."

The way he put it sounded so completely damning that even Jarrod's family began to wonder what was going on. Heath asked, "Have you sent out a posse?"

Sheriff Madden nodded. "I did, but I haven't heard back. It's too dark tonight and we really have no way of tracking him on that busy road, so I'm not optimistic. That wire John was delivering was from Modesto. Now, if Jarrod had some business he was arguing with Bliss about, it might have been down Modesto way, but Pitch said he thought Jarrod was heading north. I mean, it could be Jarrod just took off for Modesto or somewhere else for Bliss and didn't have a thing to do with Bliss's killing. I just can't know until I find him. So I sent posses both ways but I thought maybe you boys might want to head north. You can turn the posse around if you find it, if you don't need them. I'm hoping you'll be the ones to find Jarrod."

"But you can't be sure where he went," Victoria said.

"No. Jarrod could be anywhere," the sheriff said. "We just can't know anything until we hear from him or somebody finds him. And I'm sorry, but right now, he's one of my three suspects, and he's the main one."

"You should have come to us earlier," Nick muttered. "We could have gotten a better start."

"I know, Nick, but I've been with Pitch and Johnson and looking for Jarrod in town and organizing posses and sending telegrams all day trying to get this straight, and I didn't want to come worry you if I was gonna find Jarrod somewhere today. It just isn't working out that way."

"Jarrod wouldn't murder anybody," Audra said. "He couldn't."

Nick and Heath looked at each other, both of them seeing the same thing in their mind's eye. The street in Rimfire a few months earlier. Audra had been away while all that was happening, and it hadn't been discussed around here much at all since it happened. But both Nick and Heath knew too well that given the right provocation, Jarrod could murder.

They just refused to believe he _would_ murder Andrew Bliss. "Did you check to see if he'd gone to San Francisco?" Heath asked.

The sheriff nodded. "I wired his office right away. His secretary hasn't seen him. She said she'd have his house checked, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet."

"Did you arrest John or Earl?" Nick asked.

"No, I've got no cause to," Sheriff Madden said. He sighed. "If Jarrod turns up or the posse finds him, I'm probably going to have to bring him in. I'm counting on you to let me know if you hear from him or if you head out and find him. I know this is terrible, coming on the heels of everything else that went on lately, and I'm sorrier about it than I can tell you. I'm sick about it. But I have to do what I have to do."

"Of course you do," Victoria said, "and if we hear from Jarrod, we'll let him know he needs to come home and see you about all this."

"We better head for Lodi now," Nick said. "We gotta get Jarrod back here as soon as we can."

Everyone looked at him. He was saying out loud what no one really wanted to say – that they would bring Jarrod in even if it was to face a murder charge.

"The last time Jarrod did some work for Bliss, he went up to Lodi to do it," Victoria said. "But Fred, I'm sure we'll hear from him any time now. I'm sure we'll get this all straightened out quickly. We'll wait until after dinner to see if Jarrod turns up – he's often late. If he doesn't come in, Nick, Heath, go after him after you eat."

The sheriff nodded. The Jarrod they all knew would come in on his own if he knew he was wanted here. Or at least the Jarrod they thought they knew would.

"Why wouldn't he have sent us a message before he left town, or at least left a message for us with his secretary?" Audra asked.

Sheriff Madden said, "I've been wondering, too, because his secretary didn't have anything from him. She didn't even know he'd gone to see Bliss."

The questions were almost overwhelming. Where was he? Why had he left so suddenly and quickly if he was not involved in Bliss's death? Why hadn't he contacted them all day?

Right now, there weren't any answers to any of that.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

No word came from Jarrod by the time the family finished dinner. When Nick and Heath got up from the table, they looked at one another, and Heath nodded to Nick. Nick said, "Heath and I are gonna head for Lodi and see if we can track Jarrod down."

Victoria nodded. Audra just stared down at her plate.

Heath said, "We'll wire you by morning. We'll stay in touch."

They each kissed both their mother and sister, knowing that the women were worried sick about this and the kisses would do little to relieve that worry. They packed up quickly and left right away, heading to the barn and saddling horses without saying anything to each other.

Lodi was less than 20 miles away. Even in the dark, Nick and Heath were there in fewer than four hours, and on the outskirts of town they ran into the posse Sheriff Madden had sent up this way. They shared coffee with the men but declined to bed down for the night. "The sheriff said you might as well head back to Stockton in the morning," Nick said. "Heath and I will keep looking for Jarrod."

"Somebody said they saw your brother heading north out of Lodi this afternoon," the head of the posse said.

Nick and Heath both nodded. They knew the sheriff in Lodi and thought checking in with him was the first thing they ought to do, so they headed there and were lucky to find him in even at that late hour.

"I didn't expect you here this fast," the sheriff, Mort Malone, said first thing.

"Expect us?" Heath asked.

The sheriff handed them a telegram. It was from Fred Madden and asked that Malone be on the lookout for Jarrod Barkley, hold him if he was there and wire back. "I got this this evening, and the posse came in, too," Malone said. "I figured you'd be looking for your brother sooner or later. What's it about? The posse said they were after your brother about a murder but that doesn't sound right."

"A man in Stockton was murdered," Nick said. Then he hesitated before he said, "Jarrod might know something. Have you seen him?"

"I checked around after I got this," Malone said. "Bob Stone over at the saloon said he saw your brother this afternoon but Jarrod was riding out of town."

"Did Stone talk to him? Did Jarrod say where he was going?"

Malone looked suspicious. "No, Stone didn't talk to him, just saw him heading north. What's going on, Nick? You don't know where your brother is?"

"No," Nick admitted and left it at that.

"Have you wired Fred Madden back about Stone seeing him?" Heath asked.

"Yeah," Malone said. "I haven't heard back from him yet."

"I reckon we better go wire Mother and at least let her know we're on the right track," Heath said to Nick. "She won't get it until morning but it'll help."

Nick nodded, said, "Thanks, Mort," and he and Heath started to leave.

"Wait a minute," Malone said, and they stopped. "I wanna know what's going on, straight out."

Nick and Heath looked at each other. Nick finally said, "Andrew Bliss was murdered and it looks like Jarrod was the last to see him. Jarrod disappeared after that and we're trying to find him."

"That doesn't sound like Jarrod," Malone said. "You don't think he had anything to do with this murder."

"We don't know what we think," Heath said. "We just want to find him and find out what he knows."

"If he comes back this way and we've missed him," Nick said, "you do what Fred said and hold him. We're gonna keep going north and see if we can catch up to him."

Malone knew nothing about Jarrod's problems after his wife was killed, and the surprise about all this was still on his face as Nick and Heath turned again and left. Heath said, "The telegraph is still open. We ought to wire Mother."

"Yeah," Nick said. He noticed Bob Stone's saloon was still open, too. "You do that while I go talk to Stone and see what else he might know. I'll meet you at the saloon."

They split up, and in a few moments Nick was dismounting and tethering his horse up outside the saloon. He went in.

He knew this Stone fellow but not well. The man owned the place and tended bar. He was back there now, cleaning the top of the bar. The crowd, if there had been one, was thinning out.

"Nick Barkley," Stone said in only mild surprise. "You're here looking for your big brother."

Nick came to the bar. "Yeah, I hear you saw him earlier."

"Yeah, I saw him heading out of town."

"Did he come in here?"

"No, I just saw him heading straight out the north road out there."

"You didn't talk to him? He didn't say where he was going?"

"He's not staying in touch, huh?"

"No, he's not," Nick said. "Bob, I need to know everything I can know. Are you sure it was Jarrod you saw?"

Stone shrugged. "It sure looked like him and that gelding he rides. Maybe he's up here on business he couldn't talk to you about, Nick."

"I hope so," Nick said. Nick checked his watch. It was just after midnight, and Nick was feeling a little hungry. "Got any sandwiches left?"

"I'll go rustle some up," Stone said. "You want a beer?"

"Yeah," Nick said. "Draw one up for Heath too. He'll be here in a minute."

Stone drew up two beers and put them on the bar, then went back into the kitchen.

Heath came in before Stone came back. He joined Nick at the bar, and Nick moved his beer in front of him. "Did you find out anything?" Heath asked.

"Stone says he saw Jarrod heading north, that's all," Nick said.

"He didn't say where he was going?"

"No. Stone didn't talk to him. Just saw him riding out of town."

"I wonder if anybody else saw him or talked to him."

"I don't know." Nick sounded discouraged.

"So what do you want to do now?" Heath asked.

Nick sighed. "Ask the sheriff to check around tomorrow and see if anybody talked to him, then head up to Sacramento, I guess. We can wire back here from there. Maybe Jarrod went there."

"If Jarrod's on the run, he won't be going anywhere people know him," Heath said.

"He came here, didn't he?" Nick said. "Maybe he is just off on business of some kind for Bliss."

"Maybe," Heath said, "but wouldn't he have sent us word somehow? He could have wired us from here, but he didn't. It's not like him to just take off and not let us know where he is."

"I know that," Nick said.

Stone returned with a plate of ham sandwiches, saying, "Howdy, Heath."

"Howdy," Heath said, and he and Nick each grabbed a sandwich to go with their beer.

Stone said, "Anything else I can get you fellas?"

Nick shook his head. "Not unless you can figure out something our brother said to somebody or did when you saw him yesterday that'll help us find him."

"Aw, don't worry, he'll turn up," Stone said. "I'll bet you find him up in Sacramento."

"Your mouth to God's ear, Bob," Heath said.

The Barkley men went to talk quickly to the sheriff, asked him to see if he could find anyone who had talked to Jarrod and to wire them at the Capitol House in Sacramento by tomorrow. Then they were on their way, heading north again. They both had their doubts that Jarrod had gone to Sacramento, but they believed Stone when he said he saw Jarrod heading north. They didn't know where else to look, and unfortunately they didn't know what they were going to do if they didn't find any trace of him there.

And they didn't. The first place they went was to the Capitol House where they planned to stay, Jarrod's favorite hotel, but they knew him well there and Jarrod hadn't been there in months. The night was slipping into morning, and they were exhausted, so they checked in and got some sleep. After a few hours, they got up again and tried the police headquarters but all they found out was that Sheriff Madden had sent a request to watch for Jarrod to them, too. As blunt as any police sergeant anywhere was, the sergeant at the headquarters asked flatly, "Is your brother on the run?"

They hated hearing it put that way. It was too close to the bone. Nick said, "We don't know what he's up to or where he's gone or why."

Nick and Heath left then. They didn't have any idea where they were going to go from here. They stood for a moment in front of the police building, looking around.

"What do you want to do?" Heath finally asked.

"Punch Jarrod out," Nick said.

That obviously wasn't what Heath was going for. "You want to look around here and spend the night tonight, or you want to push on now?"

"Push on where?" Nick said. "He could have gone any direction from here, or never even come here."

"Well, tell you what," Heath said. "Why don't nose around Jarrod's haunts here, and if we don't find anything, we get a good night's sleep and see what's what in the morning? Just because Jarrod hasn't turned up here yet doesn't mean he won't, if he is out here on business and not on the run. I mean, he might be out at somebody's ranch or something."

Nick leveled a gaze at him. "You're grabbing at straws."

"Maybe. Maybe not. But we gotta wire Mother and Sheriff Madden and find out if they know any more anyway, so we'll have to hang around waiting for a reply and something from the sheriff in Lodi. Tonight we can get something to eat and talk and rest and come morning we might have some fresh ideas."

Nick heaved a sigh. "Maybe you're right. But I'm still gonna punch him out the minute I lay eyes on him."

An ugly thought ran through Heath, almost making him shiver, the thought that they might not lay eyes on their older brother again at all. If he was on the run, he was doing a good job of it so far. What if he did kill Bliss, and what if he got clean away from them?

Heath shook it off. There was no way he was going to believe Jarrod killed Bliss. If he was on the run, it was for some other reason, and Heath wasn't ready to believe he was on the run yet either. He still believed there was some explanation for Jarrod's behavior, some reason he hadn't wired them to tell them where he was or what he was doing. "Let's send a couple telegrams and get some food," he said and laid a comforting hand on Nick's back.

Nick said, "Yeah."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

While Nick and Heath were searching around Sacramento, Victoria and Audra were talking and not talking in the living room when the second wire came in. The first they received that morning had said Jarrod was spotted in Lodi and it got their hopes up. They jumped at the sound of the knock at the door, and stood up to meet Silas as he brought the latest message to Victoria. They met him in the foyer, and Silas handed the telegram over in silence.

"What does it say?" Audra asked.

They got their hopes up again, but Victoria said, "Nick and Heath are in Sacramento but they haven't found Jarrod there. They want to know if we know anything."

Victoria noticed the door was open, and the runner from the telegraph office was still standing there.

"Wire back that the sheriff still hasn't found Jarrod in San Francisco and beyond that we don't know anything more," Victoria said.

Silas went back to the door, took a coin from his pocket and tipped the runner. Then he closed the door and came back down. Both the women looked shrunken. "Is there anything more I can do for you right now, Mrs. Barkley?" he asked.

Victoria shook her head. "No, Silas. I'm afraid not."

"I'll finish up in the kitchen then," Silas said, he and left.

Audra touched her mother's arm. Victoria continued to stare at the telegram. "Mother, how about a little brandy?" Audra asked.

It was only early afternoon, but Victoria said, "Maybe just a little."

Audra guided her back to the settee, then poured a little brandy in a snifter at the refreshment table. She brought it to her and sat down beside her. Victoria looked as drained as Audra had ever seen her. "Don't worry, Mother. They'll find him."

"Not if he doesn't want to be found," Victoria said.

"Why wouldn't he want to be found?" Audra asked.

Victoria didn't answer.

Audra had been away in Philadelphia when Jarrod's wife was killed, but ever since then, ever since Nick and Heath brought him back from Rimfire, he'd been a different man. Audra didn't quite understand why. When she asked, she was told Jarrod would talk about it when he wanted to, but he never did, and no one would tell her what it was they were keeping from her. At first, she had been livid, but then she acquiesced, leaving everything alone. Jarrod started to come around. He smiled more. He went to work in Stockton and San Francisco and things began to settle down. But now – now all that secretiveness was coming back, and so was the threat surrounding a man who had never been a threat before.

Audra said, "Mother, what are you not telling me?"

"Nothing, sweetheart, nothing," Victoria said.

Audra took her hand. "That's not true, Mother. You're afraid Jarrod doesn't want to be found, and to me that says that you're afraid he really did kill Mr. Bliss. Is that what you think?"

Victoria didn't know how to answer that.

But for Audra, her silence did answer it. "Mother, how can you possibly think he could kill someone and run away? That's just not the way he is – " And then she started putting things together. "Or do you think that is the way he is? Mother, do you really believe that? Do you really think Jarrod could murder someone?"

Victoria couldn't look at her daughter, but she squeezed her hand. Victoria was well aware no one had ever explained what happened in Rimfire to Audra. They had just let it all go as Jarrod began to adjust to what had happened. But now – "Audra," Victoria said, "when Beth was killed, Jarrod left us, chasing that Cass Hyatt, the man Jarrod knew, just knew, had killed Beth. We tried to stop him, but he'd hear none of it. That all happened before you got home from Philadelphia. Nick and Heath chased Jarrod for days before they found him. When they brought Jarrod home, Nick told me the truth even though he didn't want to. Nick and Heath had found Jarrod murdering Cass Hyatt, just out and out murdering him."

"No – " Audra said.

"Yes," Victoria said. "Drowning him. They had to pull Jarrod off and even then he pulled his gun on his brothers and threatened them too. Audra – there is something in a man – that when that beast gets out once, that animal inside that can kill in cold blood, once it's out once, it can come out more easily the second time, and easier still the third."

"No," Audra said, getting up. "I don't believe it. Not of Jarrod."

"I wouldn't have believed it the first time," Victoria said, "but it happened. It can be happening again, and the fact that Jarrod hasn't contacted us at all scares me – " Victoria felt tears coming on. She didn't know what else to say.

"There's another explanation," Audra said. "Mother, I know there is. Nick and Heath will find him and this will all be explained."

Victoria squeezed her daughter's hand again, but she didn't know what to say now. She knew what she hoped – that Audra was right – but she didn't know what she believed, and that made her angry with herself. She had to admit, inside herself, that she didn't believe unconditionally in her oldest son, as she used to believe in him. She had to have proof, and she hated that, and she hated herself for it.

XXXXXXX

Nick and Heath talked to a lot of people and asked a lot of questions that day, but came up with nothing. They had a room with two beds at the Capitol Hotel, and in the privacy of the darkness after they went to bed, Nick prayed that somehow, while they slept, Jarrod would find his way here and check into this hotel too. He tried to believe that in the morning they'd just find him in the café having breakfast, and he'd be surprised and pleased to see them, and he'd explain all of this was a big mistake.

Nick prayed, but it wasn't settling anything for him.

"You ain't sleeping," Heath said.

"No," Nick said.

"You need to get some sleep, Nick. We might have a hard few days ahead of us."

Nick stared up at the darkness. "You know, Heath, I can remember the first memory I have that I know was a real memory. I was maybe four years old. Jarrod was about eight, a lot bigger than me. I was playing tough little Nick and I started to beat him up. Well, he just put his hand on my head and pushed me back and I kept trying to hit him but my arms were too short. It must have been hysterical to see. I remember he said to me, 'Nick, you're too little, you can't hit me, and one of these days you better realize you can't fix all your problems by hitting people.'"

Heath chuckled softly.

"Yeah, I know, I never learned," Nick said. "But Jarrod tried to teach me. He always tried to teach me and the big thing he always tried to teach me was that hurting people didn't solve your problems. Except lately. Except since Rimfire. He's been different, Heath. You've only been around him for a few years, but you know it too. He's different."

"He can't help but be different, Nick," Heath said. "His life had an earthquake. He found out he could murder a man in cold blood. He found out he wasn't who he thought he was, and he doesn't like it."

"But what if – Heath, what if who he was at Rimfire is really who he was all along?"

"He's not, Nick," Heath said. "He's that same man who turns to the law before he turns to violence. He's just learning to reconcile himself and figure it all out, and he did not murder Andrew Bliss. Jarrod at Rimfire was a man out of his mind with grief. It was extreme. He wasn't extreme with Bliss."

"How do we know that, Heath? We weren't there."

"No, we weren't," Heath said, "but Jarrod had to be driven awful far and awful hard before he broke with Cass Hyatt. He had to be driven more than any man I ever knew. And we got no reason to believe that happened here. No, something else is going on. We just don't know what it is yet."

They had talked about what they were going to do the next day but they hadn't really come to any plan. They just didn't know where to go, who to ask, what to do. They had gotten responses from their Mother and the sheriff and nothing had changed. Jarrod hadn't contacted anyone, and the posse heading for Modesto hadn't returned. The sheriff in Lodi hadn't found anyone who had actually talked to Jarrod there, and Sheriff Madden in Stockton said he would not send a posse out again, that he'd leave it to Nick and Heath to find their brother.

But Nick and Heath didn't know what to do to find him. They were out of ideas and reduced to prayers. Heath rolled onto his side and said, "We have to come up with something and there's only one thing I can think of."

"What's that?" Nick asked.

"We gotta split up," Heath said. "You go west, I'll go east, and we'll keep looking for him."

"And how are we gonna stay in touch with each other?" Nick asked.

"You go to Vacaville, I'll go to Placerville," Heath said. "It'll take us more than a day to get there, especially if we're asking questions along the way, but it might be our best bet to find something. You'll probably get there first. You ask around, you wire me in Placerville. When I get there, I'll check around and wire you back. We'll plan day by day like that."

"And what if he's gone north toward Yuba City or something? Heath, we could be doing this forever."

"Do you think he went to Yuba City?"

Nick sighed. "No."

"Do you have a better idea?"

Nick thought about it. "No."

"Then we get something to eat in the morning, recheck with the front desk and the police, wire Mother and Fred what we're doing, and then we move out. And we take it one day at a time."

Nick had real doubts that it would work, but he didn't know what else to do. "All right," he said. "One day at a time."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Nick and Heath each thought hard about things overnight. Neither one of them slept very well, their minds churning away. Come morning, Jarrod had not turned up at the Capitol House, and neither Nick nor Heath had any better idea than Heath's idea to split up. They set about doing it.

They ate, sent telegrams about their plans to their mother and Fred Madden, then fetched their horses from the livery, wished each other well and parted company. As they rode farther and farther apart from one another, they thought harder and harder about what they were going to do along the way, and what they were going to do if they found nothing of Jarrod. They could have taken the train and gotten to Vacaville and Placerville faster, but they didn't want to miss the chance they might find something of their lost brother somewhere before they got to where they were going.

They had a lot of time to think, but neither one was coming up with any plan about what to do if they still hadn't found any trace of Jarrod by the time they got to Vacaville and Placerville.

Heath had some little bit of luck first, in a little town called Flora about halfway to Placerville. He stopped for something to eat in the late afternoon on his first day out at the town's only saloon and started a conversation with the bartender while he ate a sandwich and drank a beer. "I'm out looking for my brother," he said. "You might remember him if you saw him. He's got real black hair and real blue eyes. My height, older than me. He's a lawyer."

"Yeah, a fella came in yesterday that coulda been him," the bartender said.

Heath perked up. "Did this fella give you a name?"

"No, he just ate and left."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"No, he didn't talk much at all."

"Did you see which way he went when he left?"

"No, but he was coming from Sacramento direction. I figured he just kept going east. He wasn't in a friendly mood, so I didn't strike up much of a conversation with him. Wherever he was going, he didn't seem to like it much."

Heath thought about whether to ask the next question, and ended up doing it. "Did he look like he was on the run?"

"Coulda been," the bartender said. "Nobody was chasing him, though, at least nobody I saw."

Heath tried to think of some way he could get more information out of the man, to be more sure the man he saw was Jarrod. He tried to remember what Jarrod was wearing when he left home – that just made him wonder why Jarrod hadn't come home for more clothes and supplies before he came up here if he wasn't on the run. He didn't like that train of thought, and he couldn't remember what Jarrod was wearing when he left home. "You sure you didn't hear him say anything at all about where he was going?"

"No, I didn't hear a thing," the bartender said. "He just came in, ate and went out. Didn't talk to anybody."

His hat. Jarrod always wore the same hat. "What color was his hat, do you remember?"

The bartender shook his head. "Sorry. That's about the last thing I notice about anybody."

Heath wished he could get hold of Nick right away and at least tell him about what he found, but then he wondered how many black-haired blue-eyed men of his height might wander in here? Probably more than one. It might not have been Jarrod in here at all. "Is there anything about him that struck you in particular? Maybe right handed or left handed, or a scar or anything like that?"

"Look, friend," the bartender said, "a lot of men come in here, and a lot come in only once. I never saw this guy before, and I never noticed anything about him that I'd remember from anybody else. I'll forget all about you two minutes after you've gone out that door too." The bartender shrugged.

Heath didn't really feel optimistic, but at the same time he was eager to grab at something, anything. Whoever this guy was, he was still heading east. Heath kept on his way and hoped for the best.

Miles in the other direction, Nick had stopped for food too in Davisville. He knew Jarrod had been to this place before and he took time to ask around, to talk to the sheriff, to check places like the bank, but no one had seen Jarrod. The closest Nick came to having any luck was when he spotted a man of Jarrod's height and build in the street, wearing a hat and a suit coat like Jarrod wore, but the man turned and it was not Jarrod.

Nick kept on his way, too.

XXXXX

Back at home, Victoria got the wire from Nick and Heath fairly early. It was good to know where they would be going, but she wasn't hopeful about what they would find. If Jarrod hadn't gone to Sacramento, to her it increased the chances that he wasn't going somewhere on business and he was trying to get away from them.

Anxiety was getting the better of her. She talked Audra into going into town with her to talk to the sheriff. All along the way, Victoria kept thinking, asking herself questions. There had to be something at the Bliss place that would give them better clues about what had happened between Bliss and Jarrod. When they got to the sheriff's office and found him inside, Victoria dove right in.

"Fred, have you talked to Bliss's houseman extensively?" she asked without even saying hello. "Did he know what Jarrod was arguing with Bliss about?"

"I asked him," the sheriff said. "He couldn't hear words. He could only hear the raised voices."

"But surely he must have heard something at some point about why Bliss would be talking to Jarrod."

"He says he didn't know anything about what Bliss was up to business-wise except for the telegram John Pitch brought out, and that's understandable, Victoria. Bliss isn't gonna talk about his business in front of the help."

"But servants hear things, Fred. You know that."

"If he heard anything, he's denying it. Victoria, Earl is a timid man. He doesn't lie well and he doesn't keep secrets well. Bliss would have known not to let anything slip around him."

"Did you search Mr. Bliss's house?" Audra asked. "Maybe there was something there to say why he had Jarrod out there. Jarrod didn't say anything at all about him yesterday morning."

"We searched, and I've questioned John Pitch about telegrams Bliss may have gotten," Sheriff Madden said. "That telegram from Modesto was about a bank account there that Bliss hadn't touched in a while and they were gonna turn over to the State in two days, because they had written Bliss about it and he hadn't contacted them yet. Whatever Jarrod was doing out at Bliss's in the first place, I haven't been able to figure out. One thing's for sure. If he was seen in Lodi, it didn't have anything to do with Bliss's business in Modesto."

"Can you be sure of that?" Victoria asked.

"Not one hundred percent, no, but Victoria – if it did have something to do with Modesto, do you really want to think about why Jarrod would be heading in the opposite direction?"

To get away. To run. Victoria knew what the sheriff was getting at. "Fred, there just has to be something. The thing that makes the least sense is that it was Jarrod who killed Bliss."

"I don't disagree with you," the sheriff said, "but until I talk to Jarrod, I can't know for sure what's going on. You still haven't heard from him at all?"

Victoria shook her head.

As if on cue, the door opened and a runner from the telegraph office came in. He was a young boy, maybe 12 years old, the son of the local pharmacist. He was holding out a telegram for the sheriff, but he looked startled to see the Barkley women. "Oh!" he said. "Sheriff, here's a telegram for you."

"Thanks, Stevie," the sheriff said.

"Hi, Miss Audra," Stevie said to Audra's smile. "I'm sorry about Mr. Jarrod."

Word was already getting around. "Don't worry, Stevie," Audra said. "We'll clear this all up, you'll see."

Stevie nodded and went on his way.

The sheriff read the telegram. "From the police in Sacramento. They haven't found anything of Jarrod and they're quitting an active search." The sheriff wasn't surprised. Police in Sacramento had bigger problems to deal with and did not have unlimited resources to deal with them.

"Nick and Heath will find Jarrod," Audra said. "If he's up there on legitimate business, sooner or later he'll just turn up."

"Yes," Victoria said, "but I'd feel a lot better if we heard from him. I don't understand why he hasn't at least telegraphed to say where he is."

"That's what I don't understand either," Sheriff Madden said. "It's not at all like Jarrod to just take off without a word."

_Except for after Beth was killed_, they all thought to themselves but did not say out loud. The sheriff might have begun leaning more to the idea that Jarrod did have something to do with Bliss's death and actually was on the run, but he wouldn't say that to the man's family. He would not hurt them that way until he had some real evidence that made him say it.

But no evidence came at any time that day. There were no more telegrams from Nick or Heath, and still nothing at all from Jarrod.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nick arrived in Vacaville the next day and immediately sent a wire off to Heath in Placerville. Nick had found nothing on his way to Vacaville. No one had seen Jarrod, no bank had given Jarrod money, no bartender had served him a drink. Nick was convinced that Jarrod just had not come in this direction. It did not look like Jarrod had come west of Sacramento, at least not along the route to Vacaville.

Heath reached Placerville and found Nick's telegram waiting for him. He wired back about the man the bartender in Flora had seen, but said that he had no real proof the man was Jarrod. It could have been anybody. He had found nothing else along the way. He recommended they each head for Yuba City, north of Sacramento. It would be almost a three-day trip for each of them even if they pushed it, but they could cover more territory that way and if there were no sign of Jarrod, they could come back to Sacramento by traveling due south, covering ground they hadn't covered yet.

Nick pondered Heath's telegram over a steak and a beer in Vacaville. He really didn't like it. They were no closer to finding their older brother than they had ever been, and they hadn't had a solid clue about him since Lodi. Nick didn't feel like taking separate routes to Yuba City was going to get them anything. He didn't feel like going to Yuba City at all was going to get them anything.

He tried not to let the feeling get in, but it got in. Jarrod really was running. He did not want to be found.

_No, no, no,_ Nick told himself. There had to be another explanation, and if that were true, then Jarrod at some point would just go home. Nick quickly finished his steak, went to the telegraph office and sent a message to his mother. _Nothing yet. Have you heard anything?_ He sent a wire to Heath in Placerville. _Found nothing. Not sure what to do. Will wire again in morning._

Nick tried to relax with a little poker after that, but it wasn't very relaxing. He checked the telegraph office again, but had no response from his mother or from Heath. He got a room at the local hotel and fell asleep for the night.

He dreamed. He dreamed about an eight-year-old Jarrod holding his four-year-old brother off from hitting him, but this time Jarrod did not speak. He just held Nick away from him, and then Jarrod vanished from the dream.

Nick woke up from it with a start, with Jarrod disappearing into the air. He got up and washed his face. He did not bother to shave. He had some breakfast and went to the telegraph office. A wire from his mother was there. All it said was, _Nothing._

"Bad news?" the telegrapher asked.

"Lousy news," Nick said. And he stood there in frustration, trying to figure out what to tell Heath they ought to do, because he just wasn't sure. Something told him not to go to Yuba City. He didn't know what was telling him that, but there it was.

Lodi was the last place it seemed clear Jarrod had actually been sighted, and he'd been seen going north from there. Nick made a decision, wired Heath to skip Yuba City and meet him back in Sacramento at the Capitol Hotel in two days time, taking a slightly different path. Nick wasn't sure it was the best decision, but he left with it made. He mounted up and started back for Sacramento, also by a slightly different route.

When he got Nick's telegram that morning, Heath wasn't sure it was the best decision either, but he headed back to Sacramento too.

XXXXXX

Nick arrived before Heath two days later at Sacramento. Nick had hoped against hope to see Jarrod's name on the register at the Capitol Hotel when he checked in, but it wasn't there. He checked the local bank and found nothing. Heath hadn't arrived yet, so Nick took the time to check at the office of their representative at the state legislature there.

Jim Cody was fairly new at his job and was not a close friend of the Barkleys, but they had met a couple times. He made time for Nick, and Nick gratefully shook hands as he entered the man's office. "This isn't really confidential, but I'd rather it didn't get spread around too much either," Nick said and sat down in front of the man's desk. "My brother Jarrod is missing, has been for several days now."

"You don't think he's been abducted, do you?" Cody asked.

"No," Nick said. "Actually, I think he's up this way on business of some sort, but he didn't let us know he was coming up here and we haven't heard from him, and the man who might have sent him up here was found murdered right after Jarrod disappeared."

Cody looked shocked. He was putting pieces together the way Nick didn't want them to go.

Nick decided he didn't want to get into the facts he knew that were damaging to his brother, so he didn't mention the loud voices or how fast after Jarrod left that Bliss was found. He just said, "Jim, I don't know what's going on. I was hoping you maybe had heard something about Jarrod, but from the look on your face, you haven't."

"Not a thing," Cody said. "Nobody I know has mentioned him. You think he might be up here?"

"Somebody saw him in Lodi the day he disappeared, and they said he was still heading north, so we figured it was Sacramento he was aiming for. I just haven't found hide nor hair of him."

"And he hasn't gotten in touch in any way?"

Nick shook his head and said sadly, "No."

Cody sighed. "I can understand why you're worried. I'm off to the club for dinner. I'll ask around without mentioning details. Maybe somebody there knows something. Where are you staying?"

Nick got up, saying, "The Capitol House. That's where Jarrod stays when he's in town, but he hasn't been there. We're hoping he might show up."

Cody stood. "Nick, I'll ask around tonight and I'll send word whether I found out anything or not. How long has he been gone?"

Nick had to think. "This would be about the fifth or sixth day. I'm losing track."

"You don't think he's involved in this man's murder you mentioned, do you?"

"No," Nick quickly said. "No, we don't, but he might know something without knowing he knows it. We just don't know what's going on because we haven't heard from him."

"I hate to say it, but it sounds like he's avoiding contact."

Nick shook his head. "I don't know why he hasn't wired us, but if he's up here somewhere really busy with something, maybe he just hasn't had time. We won't know until we can find him and ask him."

"I'll ask around and get in touch with you at the hotel," Cody said.

"We'll probably be moving out again in the morning," Nick said, "me and my brother Heath, but I don't know where we'll be going."

"I'll leave a message for you tonight, one way or the other."

Nick nodded his thanks and left, and then he just stood out in front of the building Cody's office was in and wondered what to do. He checked his watch. It was getting late in the afternoon. Maybe Heath had shown up.

Nick went back to the hotel, but Heath wasn't there yet. He went into the hotel bar for a drink, and he sat and thought about what to do next.

Heath came along while he was sitting there. He sat down at Nick's table, saying, "I looked and saw you in here. You all right?"

"As all right as I'm going to get with a missing brother," Nick said.

"Have you thought about what we do now?"

"I've been doing more looking than thinking," Nick said. "I talked to Jim Cody. He hasn't heard anything about Jarrod, but he's going to ask around at his club tonight and let us know what he finds out."

"You know, it's been nearly a week. Jarrod should have contacted the family by now, or even gone home."

"If he's up here on some business," Nick said. "If he's not on the run."

"You're not still doubting him, are you?"

Nick shook his head. "No, I'm not. He wouldn't kill Bliss. I'm just confused. I can't make sense of this. I need to understand why he would go away and stay away and not tell us where he was, and I keep trying to find an answer that doesn't add up to he's on the run from Bliss's killing."

"Maybe he didn't do the killing," Heath said. "Maybe he's a witness."

Nick shook his head again. "Being a witness wouldn't make him run. Even killing the man shouldn't have made him run. Even when he nearly killed Hyatt, he wasn't running away and he wasn't about to. He was planning to turn himself in."

"Letting himself be seen in Lodi doesn't sound like a man running away either," Heath said. "So I think we make up our minds for good – he's not running away."

"Then why hasn't he contacted us?"

"Maybe he's tried and the wire didn't go through."

"Ours have gone through."

"There could have been a foul-up. If he was up here on some business, it's likely he'd have only sent one wire."

"And if it hadn't gone through, the telegrapher would have let him know," Nick said.

Suddenly, Heath perked up. "Unless it did go through, and the reason it didn't get to us is at the other end."

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"It was our telegrapher Pitch who found Bliss's body," Heath said.

"Yeah? So?"

"Maybe he got a wire from Jarrod and just didn't deliver it."

"Why would he do that?"

Heath shrugged. "To keep us from finding Jarrod. To keep us looking for him, so we weren't looking Pitch's way."

Nick looked stunned. "Pitch? He found the body!"

"Did he?"

"Are you saying Pitch killed Bliss?"

"Maybe."

Nick shook his head one more time. "Why would he do that? And besides, he was in and out of that house fast, too fast to have killed Bliss."

Heath looked firmly at his older brother. "Are we sure about that?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Nick kept shaking his head. "You're thinking too hard. You're just guessing."

"I'm trying to figure out why we haven't heard from Jarrod when as far as he knows, he's just up here on some regular business," Heath said. "I'll bet he doesn't even know Bliss is dead."

"It's been almost a week. He'd have tried to wire us more than once."

"And Pitch could have 'lost' those wires more than once," Heath said. Heath really thought he was onto something.

But Nick still thought he was reaching too far. "Even if you're right, we still have to find Jarrod, and we don't know where to look now."

"Maybe we look back in Stockton," Heath said. "Maybe we look at what Pitch has been doing or not doing."

Nick thought about it. "We couldn't wire Fred to do that, 'cause if Pitch is losing the telegrams…"

Heath nodded. "He'd lose that one too."

Now Nick was almost starting to believe, or at least to hope. "If Cody doesn't come up with anything tonight, maybe we should go back to Stockton."

"If Pitch has gotten wires from Jarrod and isn't delivering them, he's bound to be getting anxious as time goes on," Heath said. "He might take off himself, if he's involved in Bliss's death. Why don't we send a wire to Mother and say we haven't found Jarrod and we're coming home?"

"Because it will break her heart," Nick said.

"Not for long. We send it in the morning and we'll be home by night to clear things up. And if it gets Pitch to relax, if he is involved, he'll stay where he is. We can tell Fred in person what we're thinking."

"But we're still not finding Jarrod," Nick said.

"Where else do we look?" Heath asked. "Besides, if we're right, if Pitch has gotten wires from him but not delivered them, we might be able to get him to tell us where Jarrod is, if Jarrod doesn't turn up back at home."

"If I break Pitch's arm, he'll tell us," Nick said.

"I don't know about breaking his arm, but do you have any other ideas about what we do now? You don't want to go to Yuba City."

"No. I think we'd just be wasting our time."

"Then let's do it. Let's go home and talk to Fred and see if he can get anything out of Pitch. If he can't or there's nothing to get, we can talk to Mother and Audra about what we do next."

Nick thought about it. "Maybe we can at least get Fred to arrest Pitch and get him off the telegraph. If he has been hiding Jarrod's wires, he won't be able to hide any more and the next wire might get delivered."

"That too," Heath said.

"All right," Nick said. "In the morning we send a wire to Mother and we head home and talk to Fred. Then we see what happens."

"I'm betting something will," Heath said.

"I hope you're right, brother mine," Nick said.

XXXXX

Nick and Heath got a message from Cody just before they were about to turn in for the night. Cody did not learn anything at the club, and the Barkley brothers were not surprised. Resigned, they decided to follow their plan, to send a wire home saying they hadn't found Jarrod and were coming home, and then to see Sheriff Madden when they got to Stockton.

In the morning, they got some breakfast and Nick looked at the hotel register one more time as they checked out, still hoping to see the name Jarrod Barkley there. But it wasn't there. Nick couldn't help feeling in some odd way like they were deserting their older brother up here somewhere, but they followed through on the plan. They sent a message home, then fetched their horses from the livery and rode out of Sacramento.

XXXXXXX

Victoria got the wire that told her Nick and Heath had not found Jarrod and were coming home, and her heart did break. But she did not give up. She immediately started thinking about what else might be done to find her eldest.

Audra could see the wheels turning, but they were turning too fast. "Mother – Nick and Heath will be home tonight. We need to wait and hear from them before we start making any other plans."

"I know that," Victoria said. "But I want to think this out. I want to try to remember something or think of something that might help when they get here, because none of us is going to want them to give up. We're going to want them to keep trying to find Jarrod."

"Unless Jarrod comes home on his own. Then all our worrying will be for nothing, and Mother, I believe that. I believe Jarrod will come home on his own, because he has no idea what's been going on here."

Victoria looked at her daughter very frankly. "Then why hasn't he contacted us to tell us where he is?"

Audra had to sigh. "I don't know. But we will know. We will find out why. Jarrod did not kill Mr. Bliss. I know he didn't."

Victoria nodded, but a little bit absently. "In the meantime, I prefer to think of things we might discuss with your brothers when they get home, even if the things I'm thinking of may sound absurd when this is all over. I want answers, Audra. I have to have answers."

"And we'll get them," Audra said. "I know we will."

XXXXXX

It was a long, long ride from Sacramento, and it was dark when Nick and Heath rode into Stockton. Out of habit, they looked for a light in the window of Jarrod's office. Of course, there was none. They were hungry and tired, but before having anything to eat they wanted to talk to Sheriff Madden.

They found the sheriff in his office, surprised to see them, sorry to see Jarrod wasn't with them. "You didn't find him," he said first thing.

"No," Heath said. "We didn't find anything of him beyond Lodi, but we've been doing some thinking and we wanted to talk to you. We started thinking about why we haven't heard anything from Jarrod."

"Go ahead," the sheriff said. "Why?"

Nick said, "Because John Pitch hasn't been bringing Mother the wires Jarrod's sent."

Sheriff Madden stiffened. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Because he knows more than he's saying," Heath said. "Because he wants us to keep thinking Jarrod is on the run from this and he wants us to keep focused on him as long as he can keep us doing it."

"That doesn't make any sense," Sheriff Madden said. "The only reason he'd want that is if he had something to do with Bliss's death, and if he did, why didn't he just take off himself as soon as he could? It's sure not safe for him to be hanging around here."

"You don't have anything that says he killed Bliss, do you?" Nick asked.

"No, just that he found the body, but Earl said he found it fast, just a couple minutes after he went in there."

"I've been thinking about that, too," Heath said, and he said something he hadn't even suggested to Nick, so he gave him a look first. "Fred, did Earl Johnson say anything about hearing Pitch go into the house or hearing any voices once he was inside?"

"No, but Pitch said Bliss was dead when he went in. There were no voices for Earl to hear after Jarrod left."

"Who let Pitch into the house?"

The sheriff said, "Pitch said he knocked and when no one answered, he looked in the window and saw Bliss on the floor. The door was unlocked. He let himself in."

"Can we assume Pitch was telling the truth?"

The sheriff shrugged. "The notion matches the time span Earl talked about."

Heath nodded. There went one of his ideas, if Pitch was telling the truth. But, "I still think he's been keeping us from seeing wires from Jarrod. I think he ought to know we're thinking about that."

"I've got no evidence to accuse him of that on, Heath," the sheriff said. "I can't go around accusing people with nothing to go on."

"You need evidence, but we don't," Nick said.

"Nick, you watch yourself," Sheriff Madden warned. "You start harassing Pitch and he'll come complaining to me, and I won't like that."

"We don't need to harass him," Heath said. "If we just ask him if he got anything from Jarrod, that's not harassment, and if he has been hiding things, just asking might make him skittish enough to make some kind of mistake."

"Like making the run for it he should have made already," Nick said.

The sheriff shook his head. "Look, I know you're upset about Jarrod maybe being on the run and you'll grab at anything to keep that from being true, but you might just have to swallow that he is trying to get away from here."

"No," Nick said flatly. "Even when he was after Cass Hyatt, he swore he'd turn himself in after he killed him. If Jarrod killed Bliss, he'd have turned himself in. And Jarrod's got no reason to have killed Bliss."

"Are you sure about that, Nick?" the sheriff asked.

"It takes a lot to push a man like Jarrod to murder, sheriff," Heath said. "You know yourself what it took to push him to go after Hyatt. That's not happening here. Jarrod didn't kill Bliss, and you need to be looking harder elsewhere, like at Pitch."

"And why would Pitch kill Bliss, especially as fast as he would have had to have done it?" the sheriff asked.

"Fred, who knows? Bliss was such an ornery cuss he could have just had at Pitch because he was still mad about whatever he was arguing with Jarrod about and Pitch had back at him. We just think you need to be asking more questions, and different questions," Nick said. "Jarrod's helped you out a lot through the years. You at least owe him more questions."

Sheriff Madden huffed a sigh. "All right. But I want you deputized in case I need to make an arrest. Raise your right hands."

They did.

"You're deputies," the sheriff said. "Let's go talk to Pitch."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The light was still on at the telegraph office, and as they approached, the Barkleys and the sheriff could hear the telegraph clicking away. They went inside and found John Pitch concentrating on a message he was sending somewhere. He did not even look up until he was finished, and then he looked startled to see who had come in.

"Sheriff! Nick, Heath, I didn't think you'd be coming into town before you went home," Pitch said.

"You got that wire we sent this morning?" Nick asked.

"Sure. I sent it right out to your mother," Pitch said. "You didn't find your brother."

"No," Nick said.

"John, we want to ask you a couple questions," Fred Madden said.

"Sure," Pitch said, looking curious, maybe a little nervous.

"We were wondering why we haven't received any word from Jarrod Barkley since he left town," the sheriff said. "It seems to us he'd have sent something to his family."

"Well, I haven't gotten anything," Pitch said, and then looked uneasily at Nick and Heath before looking back at the sheriff. "But sheriff – maybe he didn't want to send anything, you know?"

"You're sure he didn't send anything," Heath said.

"I'm sure," Pitch said. "You can look at my log if you want, Sheriff."

The sheriff went around the counter and stopped next to the desk where Pitch sat. Pitch handed him the log book, and the sheriff spent a full minute going through the listing of wires received and sent over the last week. There was nothing either from or to Jarrod Barkley. The sheriff closed the book, looked up at Nick and Heath, and shook his head.

Pitch looked at the Barkleys again and then up at the sheriff. "Sheriff – you know I hate to say this but Jarrod was the last person to see Andrew Bliss alive. If he's trying to get away, there's no reason he'd telegraph here. I'm sorry, Nick, Heath, but I'm just saying the truth."

Nick and Heath were both itching to grab Pitch by the throat for saying what he'd said, but the sheriff quickly ushered them outside, saying, "Thanks, John. Good night."

Once they were out on the street, Nick and Heath stopped dead. "Sheriff, he can't be telling the truth," Heath said. "Even if Jarrod was on the run, he'd have sent something from Lodi. He was seen in Lodi and he wasn't hiding himself from anybody. He'd have sent a wire from somewhere by now."

"I hear you, Heath," the sheriff said. "And you're right. It doesn't add up to the Jarrod we know, even the Jarrod from Rimfire."

"So just what are you gonna do about this, Fred?" Nick asked, seething.

"If telegrams came in from Jarrod, Pitch destroyed the paper and didn't record them in his log," Sheriff Madden said. "It would have been easy enough to do. But now he knows we're looking at that. He knows we suspect."

"He might take off overnight," Heath said.

"He might," the sheriff said. "I'll get Henry to keep watch on Pitch's house and stop him if he tries." Henry was a part-time deputy the sheriff used now and then.

"No, we want to do that," Nick said.

"I can't have you do that, Nick," the sheriff said. "For one thing, Pitch is gonna be looking for you keeping an eye out. He won't be looking for Henry. For another, if you catch him at something he's gonna scream bloody murder that you're out to frame him in order to clear your brother and that'll be a credible defense to a lot of people around here, especially when you try to beat the truth out of him. No, you go home. Your mother is gonna want to see you anyway. It's hard enough on her that Jarrod is missing, and for one other thing – there's something you haven't thought of that maybe she has."

"What?" Nick asked.

"Pitch is the one who came to get me after he found Bliss dead. If he killed Bliss, he wouldn't have had any trouble killing the man who might be able to say Bliss was alive when he left right before Pitch got there, before he came to get me."

Nick and Heath both washed white. Nick said, "You're saying he could have killed Jarrod a week ago."

"I'm sorry," the sheriff said. "He could have."

"But Jarrod was seen in Lodi after Bliss was killed," Heath said. "He couldn't be dead and in Lodi at the same time."

"Are you sure he was seen Lodi?" the sheriff asked. "Are you sure the man who says he saw him there really saw him?"

They didn't want to admit it even to themselves, but no, they couldn't be sure. Bob Stone had just seen a man riding away who he thought was Jarrod. The sheriff had checked around and nobody in Lodi had actually talked to Jarrod. It might not have been Jarrod who was seen in Lodi at all.

But Nick quickly said, "No, he'd have killed Earl Johnson, too. Jarrod's not dead. You find me a body and I'll believe he's dead, but without a body, no, he's not dead."

"Our other choice isn't any better, Nick," the sheriff said. "He's on the run and doesn't want to be found."

"Or he's away on business and he has been wiring home and Pitch has been throwing those messages away," Heath said. "That's what I think is the most likely, Fred, and you do, too, and you know it."

The sheriff actually nodded. "That would be the way I want this to turn out, that's for sure. But you best head on home. Your family needs you. I'll come see you or send word in the morning about whether Pitch tries anything overnight."

Sheriff Madden gave Nick a slap on the arm and headed off to his part-time deputy's house to recruit him to keep an eye on Pitch. Nick and Heath watch him go until he disappeared in the dark. Then, Nick said, "He's not dead."

"No," Heath agreed. "He's not. He's somewhere. We're gonna find him one way or the other."

XXXXXXX

They rode home, but I silence, thinking, not knowing what to think, not knowing what to say. It wasn't until they got to the house and the stable hand took their horses from them that they trudged wearily to the door and Heath asked, "What are we gonna tell Mother?"

"That we haven't found him, but the sheriff is keeping an eye on John Pitch tonight in case he's behind all this and tries something," Nick said.

"And what are we gonna say when she asks why we think Pitch might be behind all this?"

Nick stopped. "That we think he might have gotten wires from Jarrod but got rid of them to keep us thinking Jarrod was on the run and to keep anybody from thinking he killed Bliss himself. And we leave it at that. None of this speculation that Pitch killed Jarrod a week ago. None of this business that it might not have been him in Lodi. As far as we're concerned, Jarrod is somewhere up north on business and we just don't know where. And he's gonna turn up any time now."

"If Pitch is behind this, he better run tonight," Heath said. "If he doesn't, Jarrod turning up again is a threat to him."

"That's why he'll try something tonight," Nick said. "I'd almost bet on it. I don't know why he hasn't run before now."

They both fought off the "unless" part of what Nick just said. Heath almost thought that Pitch hadn't run because he knew Jarrod wasn't going to turn up. Because he knew Jarrod was dead and dumped somewhere no one would ever find him. It was tough to keep his train of thought from going there, and Heath could tell Nick's thoughts were going there too. But they both stopped the trains. Jarrod was not dead.

They went inside and found their mother and sister hurrying to join them in the foyer. "Did you find out anything more?" Victoria asked quickly.

Nick shook his head and took his hat off. "The sheriff is looking at something else though."

Nick and Heath explained their theory that Pitch had withheld Jarrod's telegrams while they hung their hats and gunbelts up in the hall. They explained the sheriff was going to have him watched overnight in case he tried something, like running away himself.

"If we're right, Jarrod's probably just gonna turn up any time now," Heath said to finish it up as they headed for the parlor.

"And if he doesn't?" Audra asked.

Nick and Heath looked at each other. They hadn't rehearsed an answer to that question. Nick said, "We'll give it a couple days, and if we haven't heard from Jarrod or he hasn't turned up, we'll head north again."

"Maybe we should try putting ads in newspapers too," Victoria said.

The men both nodded. "Good idea, if he doesn't turn up in a day or two," Nick said. He poured a whiskey for Heath and one for himself, and they sat down in the armchairs while Victoria and Audra sat down nervously in the settee across from them.

Nick tried a smile. "Come on, now. He's probably just gonna come walking through that door anytime and tell us he was away on business and thought we got the wire he sent. Maybe Pitch hid it, maybe it just got lost, but Jarrod did not kill Bliss and he's not on the run. He'll be back."

"Then who did kill Mr. Bliss?" Audra said. "It would have to be Mr. Pitch."

"Or Bliss's houseman, Earl Johnson, but Fred doesn't think Earl is likely," Heath said. "We're just gonna have to wait and see what happens tonight and over the next couple days, and if nothing happens – " He looked at Nick. "If nothing happens, we'll head north again."

Victoria took a deep breath, looked away into the air and seemed almost terrified. Audra reached for her hand. Victoria looked at her, nodded, and smiled as reassuring a smile as she could muster. It wasn't much of one.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Nick wasn't surprised that he couldn't sleep. It wasn't so much that he was worried about his older brother. It was more the feeling that something was happening with Pitch in Stockton and he didn't know what it was. He had really wanted to be there. He wanted Pitch to try to take off so that he could grab the man by the throat and wrench the truth out of him, but of course that was precisely why the sheriff didn't want him and Heath there. It was frustrating nonetheless and grated on Nick in the dark. It was just too much against his nature to just lie there and try to sleep when the solution to all of this might be unfolding in Stockton right now.

He got up and was half planning to get dressed and go – somewhere. He didn't know where. He just knew he couldn't lie here doing nothing. But as soon as he threw some clothes on, he saw a light appear under his door, out in the hall. Somebody else was up, too. Heath, he thought, but when he went to the door and then made his way to the stairs, it was his mother he saw down there, heading for the library. Nick thought he should have known she wouldn't be sleeping either. Maybe nobody in the house was.

Nick went down quietly and followed his mother into the library. She had stopped there in the middle of the room. She was holding a book, one of Jarrod's law books. She had it open, idly flipping pages. She jumped when Nick called softly to her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," she said to her middle son.

Nick came up beside her. "You didn't. I was already awake. Does any of that in there make any sense to you?"

"Not a bit," she said. "Sometimes when I'm worried about Jarrod I'll look through these books, maybe just to see what answers he might find, but – they're just too lawyerly for me. He spends most of his time in a world I can't begin to understand."

Nick took the book from her and put it on the edge of the desk, saying, "Come on, sit down."

He led her to the sofa and they sat down together. Victoria rested her head on Nick's shoulder, and he kept a warm arm around her. "Nick," Victoria said, "what do you really think has happened to Jarrod?"

"I really think he's gone off on business for Bliss and he's wired us to say so and John Pitch kept the telegrams from us."

"But why?"

"To keep us thinking Jarrod is on the run and to keep us looking at that and not at him."

"But that makes no sense. If Jarrod is out there on business somewhere, Pitch knows that he'll be coming home. If he's trying to cover for himself, if he's involved in Bliss's killing, why didn't he just run away right after it happened?"

"Scared, maybe," Nick said. "Trying to buy time while he figured out what to do without thinking too far ahead. I don't know. But he knows now we suspect he's up to something. I think something is happening in town tonight."

Victoria paused before she said, "Nick, do you think Jarrod is dead?"

"No," Nick said quickly. "He's not dead. Don't you go thinking he is."

"I keep thinking – if I were John Pitch and I killed Andrew Bliss, for whatever reason, and I knew Jarrod was the last person who saw Bliss alive before I got there – "

"Mother, just let that thinking go. If Pitch killed Bliss, it had to be a spur of the moment thing. He had no reason to kill Bliss except that Bliss was a man who could get crazy angry and belligerent at the drop of a hat. We know Jarrod and Bliss argued and Jarrod left right before Pitch got there. If Bliss was still mad about something and started aiming it at Pitch, maybe Pitch hit him with the bookend and that's how this all happened, but Jarrod was on his way north by then. Pitch just let him go and tried this crazy distraction idea of hiding Jarrod's telegrams on us while he tried to figure out what to do. Pitch is panicked and he's not thinking straight and there's no point in us speculating what he might have done. We just have to figure out what he _did_ do, and Fred's probably doing that right now."

"But we still don't know where Jarrod is," Victoria said.

"He'll turn up any time now," Nick reassured her. "That's what's put Pitch in a corner, that and us questioning him when Heath and I got into town. He can't stall anymore. Trust me, Mother, we're gonna have some answers by morning, and it's not gonna be that Jarrod is dead."

XXXXXX

In the morning Nick and Heath hurried into town as fast as they could get there, both of them certain that something had happened overnight and they wanted to know what it was. When they went into the sheriff's office and Sheriff Madden held his hands up to stop them coming in further, they knew something had.

The door to the cell block was closed. Nick said, "You've got Pitch in there."

"Yeah, he tried to leave town during the night," the sheriff said.

"What's he said? What's he know about Jarrod?"

"Nick, he hasn't said anything, not one word," the sheriff said. "He won't even look at anybody. I had the doctor in here to take a look at him and he wouldn't talk to the doctor either. The doc said he's just kinda shut himself off completely. Maybe he'll start talking – "

"I'll get him to start talking," Nick growled and started for the cell block.

Sheriff Madden was bigger than any man in town, even Nick Barkley, and he stopped Nick physically. "You're not going in there, Nick. The doc said to leave him alone for a while. The more we try to talk to him, the more he'll shut down."

"Talk wasn't what I had in mind," Nick said.

"Do you think he killed Bliss?" Heath asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it, but I don't have any proof. If Jarrod turns up and can swear Bliss was alive when he left him, then I've got something but if he doesn't and Pitch doesn't talk, I've got nothing."

"You can't just let him go if he doesn't talk," Nick said.

"If he doesn't talk at all, the doc's gonna have him committed to the insane asylum, because we can't leave him on his own like this, not when he might have killed Bliss," the sheriff said, "but if he starts functioning and just doesn't confess to anything, and if we don't find Jarrod, I won't have any choice."

Nick was ready to jump out of his skin. He was sure they'd know something today, that Pitch would have been caught leaving town and would have broken and talked. He was not ready for more uncertainty. Neither was Heath, but Heath could see that Nick was too frazzled for him to get crazy too.

"Look," the sheriff said, "one positive thing is that with Pitch off the telegraph, Dave Bishop is on, and if Jarrod wires in, we know we'll get the message."

Dave Bishop was the back-up telegrapher. Nick relaxed a little.

"I already wired Jarrod's office in San Francisco," the sheriff went on, "just in case they did wire me or Jarrod wired me he was there and Pitch just hid that wire, too. We're gonna find out what happened, boys. In the next day or two this is gonna start to make sense."

Heath sensed something. "You've sent men out looking for Jarrod's body, too, haven't you?"

"I'm covering every angle I can, Heath," the sheriff said. "But I don't think they're gonna find a body. I don't think he's dead. I think he's gonna turn up or wire us or something in the next day or two."

"He better not be dead," Nick muttered, and turned and went back out the door.

Heath gave the sheriff a look that said half-thanks and half-sorry, and he followed Nick out.

Nick stopped right next to his horse, just standing there. Heath came up beside him saying, "Take it easy, Nick. This isn't over."

"I know that," Nick said. "But Pitch knows what happened and if I could just get to him I could get him – "

"No, you couldn't, Nick, not if the doc said he's shut down. I've seen it before. People in trouble just quit talking at all. He'll come around, and Jarrod will just turn up in the next day or two, or we'll get a telegram. This is gonna finish, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but it'll finish and we'll know what happened and Jarrod isn't dead."

Nick eyed his younger brother and was grateful for the common sense Heath could pull out of himself when he, Nick, couldn't.

Heath said, "Let's go home and get some work done."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Victoria and Audra both deflated when Nick and Heath got home and explained to them what had happened with Pitch, and what hadn't happened. Nick wouldn't have said anything to them about the sheriff looking for Jarrod's body, except that Victoria asked, and he would not keep bad news from her. It never worked, and she was always more livid when she found out you had kept something from her.

"But he's not dead," Heath quickly said. "The sheriff doesn't think he's dead. The sheriff thinks he'll either wire us and the wire will come through now that Pitch is off the telegraph, or Jarrod will turn up in a day or two, and he'll give the sheriff the evidence he needs to charge Pitch with killing Bliss."

"And we think so too," Nick said. "The sheriff is double checking to see if he turned up in San Francisco, too."

"But in the meantime, Mr. Pitch isn't talking," Audra said.

"Not one word," Heath said.

"And for now we just wait," Victoria said with a sigh that said she was plenty tired of waiting.

Victoria left her sons in the foyer and wandered back toward the living room, where she sat down on the settee and stared off into space, frowning. Audra quickly sat down beside her. Nick and Heath could only look at each other, then then came in to join the women.

Nick said, "Heath and I are gonna go get some work done. We need to check with McColl and see how things are around here."

"Of course," Victoria said. "Where do you plan to be?"

"The north ridge."

Heath said, "Just come get us if anything comes up we oughtta know about."

Victoria nodded.

Audra looked up at her brothers, trying not to look too much like she was worried about everyone and everything, but she was. She said, "We'll be all right here. We'll see you at dinner if not before."

Nick and Heath both nodded and went back out the front door.

Audra held her mother's hand and squeezed it, but Victoria just kept looking off into space. "Mother, don't worry so. The boys and the sheriff are right. Jarrod will either turn up or wire us, maybe even today."

Victoria returned the hand squeeze. "I'm just very tired, Audra. I hardly slept. This has all been so very draining."

"I know," Audra said. "Can I get you some coffee, or maybe tea?"

"No, no," Victoria said. "I think maybe I'll just go upstairs and try to take a nap."

Audra stood up with her mother. "I'll be here if anything happens or someone comes with a telegram."

"You wake me right away," Victoria told her.

Audra nodded. "I will."

Victoria climbed wearily up the stairs, so wearily it almost made Audra cry. Privately, Audra said a prayer that her big brother would come home, today. They needed him in front of them. They needed to hug him and kiss him and know that he was all right.

XXXXX

But by the time Nick and Heath came in at the end of the day, Jarrod had not come home, and no one had come in from town with any new information. It seemed that nothing at all had changed. Jarrod was still missing, Pitch was still not talking. It looked like it was going to be another long sleepless night.

Nick and Heath cleaned up and then came down, heading for the whiskey. Victoria and Audra were both on the settee, sipping wine silently. Everyone was silent. Nick poured himself a drink and sat down in "Jarrod's thinking chair," where he finally said, "Heath and I thought we'd go into town after dinner and see if we could find out anything new."

Victoria nodded. "Thank you, Nick. I was hoping you would."

Heath sat down in the chair beside the one Nick was sitting in. "If it isn't tonight, it's definitely going to be tomorrow," Heath said.

"We'll keep hoping," Audra said.

Victoria decided to change the subject. "Did you find everything all right out in the field?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," Nick said. "Three new calves overnight last night." He chuckled a little. "McColl is calling them the Three Musketeers because they're already hanging around together."

"Isn't it amazing?" Victoria mused. "The ability babies and young animals have to recognize themselves in others, even if they've never seen their own reflection or have any idea what they themselves look like?"

They chatted some more about idle things and actually began to relax, until suddenly the front door opened and in he came, large as life and talking right away.

"I'm sorry I'm later than I expected. It took the jury six hours to come back with a verdict when it shouldn't have taken them more than two and I got delayed half a day in leaving."

He headed straight for the hallway to hang up his gunbelt and hat and came back into the foyer.

"I have to clean up. This suit is looking like it could stand up all by itself. I had it cleaned and I had to buy an extra set of clothes anyway, and shaving things. I had to leave so fast I didn't have time to come home for anything, and doggone it, I left my things out with my horse – "

He finally looked up. His family was rushing to him and his mother was in his arms before he could say another word.

"Jarrod! Oh, Jarrod!"

Jarrod was floored. She and Audra were near tears, Heath was smiling and Nick looked like he was ready to hit him. "What's this? What's going on?"

"Where have you been?" Nick asked.

"Woodland," Jarrod said, surprised. "I wired you three times over the last week or more and told you where I was. Didn't you get my telegrams?"

"No," Heath said, "and thereby hangs a tale."

"What are you talking about?" Jarrod asked. "I wired you and told you Andrew Bliss sent me up there at the last minute on a trial he needed representation on because he hadn't paid enough attention to it. I had less than three days to get up there and get to work on it and I had to ride up right away. I knew I couldn't get a train until the day after I left and it wouldn't get me there in time to do everything I had to do. And what's this?" He saw his mother wiping her face.

"We were afraid you were dead," Heath said.

"What? Dead?" Jarrod said, unbelieving. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"You didn't leave us a note where you had gone, and we haven't gotten any telegrams, and some things have happened you don't know about," Victoria said.

"I know, I should have left a note with my secretary, but I was in a hurry when Bliss sent for me and after I talked to him I was so livid I just had to get out of there and I forgot I hadn't left you word about what was going on."

"Didn't you get suspicious when you didn't get a wire back from us?"

"I didn't expect one," Jarrod said. "There was nothing I needed you to respond to."

"Come in here, sit down," Victoria said and pulled him into the parlor, where she sat down with him on the settee.

"Something to drink, Jarrod?" Heath asked and went to the refreshment table.

"A nice sized scotch, apparently," Jarrod said. "What's going on? Why did you think I was dead?"

"Because we didn't get any of your wires," Nick said, "and because John Pitch said he found Andrew Bliss murdered right after you left him."

Jarrod's face screwed up in disbelief. "Murdered? I saw Pitch ride in just after I left Bliss's property!"

"We didn't know what was going on," Nick said. "Heath and I even went up Sacramento way and to Placerville and Vacaville looking for you. We started out worrying - ." Nick stopped. He didn't know how to put it.

Jarrod did. "You thought I might have murdered him? Why would you think I murdered him?!"

"He wasn't your favorite client," Nick said, "and Bliss's houseman heard you arguing with him. And John Pitch said he found the body right after you left."

"And he was leading us to believe you were responsible," Heath said. "He wasn't delivering any of your telegrams and we were afraid you'd gone on the run."

Jarrod was angry that they weren't getting the point of his question. He didn't care about the machinations of how Pitch might have misled them, but how could they possibly believe he would murder Bliss at all? But he let it go for now. "I wired you when I got to Woodland – but you didn't get any of my telegrams? I sent three!"

"When we couldn't find you we started looking at Pitch as the one who murdered Bliss, and we were afraid he'd murdered you and left you somewhere, too, because you could testify Bliss was alive when you left him," Heath said.

Jarrod shook his head. "Aw, now, wait a minute. Why would John Pitch murder Andrew Bliss? I know the man is disagreeable and he was in great form when I left him, but murder?"

"We don't know why," Nick said. "Pitch isn't talking at all. Not one word since Fred picked him up last night trying to leave town."

"This doesn't make any sense," Jarrod said.

"You didn't go into town before you came here?" Victoria asked.

"No, I wanted to get straight home," Jarrod said, and he got up without drinking his scotch. "But I think I better go in there right away and straighten this out."

Nick and Heath got up, too. "We'll go with you," Nick said.

"I can take care of it, Nick," Jarrod said.

"Oh, no," Nick said. "I'm not letting you out of my sight tonight. We'll be back as soon as we can, Mother. Come on, Big Brother. Let's go see if we can get anything out of John Pitch once he gets a look at you."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When the Barkley men went into the sheriff's office, Fred Madden took one look at Jarrod in the lead and popped up from his desk. "Where the hell have you been?" he blurted out.

"Hello to you too," Jarrod said. "I've been in Woodland. I went up there to try a case for Andrew Bliss. I had no idea he was dead and no idea what was going on down here until Nick and Heath filled me in about half an hour ago. You've got John Pitch locked up?"

"Yes, but he's one sick man according to Dr. Merar," the sheriff said.

"You think he killed Bliss?"

"I'm sure of it, but I need to hear what you have to say."

Jarrod heaved a sigh. "Not much. I got a note from Bliss asking me to come see him early on the morning I left town. I went out there, he told me his problem, he was screaming mad about the whole thing. It took me a while to even calm him down enough to tell me what he wanted me to do. I was just about to tell him to find somebody else when he got himself under control and offered to pay me twice my rate to go up to Woodland and try this case for him. I didn't need him there for it - i'd have probably turned him down if I did. I went, I was sick and tired of the man and just wanted to get out of there but he was perfectly all right when I left him. And I sent three telegrams home while I was gone, which apparently no one got."

The sheriff shook his head. "Did you see John Pitch that day you left?"

"Just for a second as I was leaving the property and headed out the north road," Jarrod said. "That's all I know about it, Fred. Can I see Pitch?"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"When he sees me, he might wake up and start talking."

"I don't think Dr. Merar will go for it."

"Let's get him and find out."

The sheriff nodded, and Heath went right out the door.

Sheriff Madden relaxed a little and said to Jarrod, "I'm glad you're back. I had men out looking for your body today. We were afraid Pitch had killed you too, and the alternative was that you were on the run, which was one we didn't like much either."

"I'm fine and I wasn't on the run," Jarrod said. "But I understand the family didn't get any of the wires I sent while I was gone. Pitch threw them out, I guess."

"It looks like it."

Jarrod looked from the sheriff to Nick and back again, and he looked angrily at them. "What I want to know before we go much further, is how any of you could believe I would have murdered Andrew Bliss. Granted, I don't have a perfectly clean reputation, but kill Bliss in cold blood? I thought you had more faith in me than that."

Nick and the sheriff looked at each other. Sheriff Madden said, "I have to go where evidence takes me, Jarrod. I don't have the luxury of having faith or not having it. You know that."

"Maybe," Jarrod said, and then he looked at Nick, "but you, Nick. Have I lost your trust that much?"

"Jarrod," Nick said, sucking his courage in, "You know why I thought you _could_ murder Bliss, but I know you _wouldn't_. I'm sorry if I misjudged you even for a minute. I shoulda known better."

Jarrod accepted that explanation with a soft nod, for now. "All right. All right."

Jarrod started to pace slowly. He was tired from traveling and he was hungry. The last thing he wanted to deal with was anything to do with Andrew Bliss. He wanted to be home with a good dinner and a brandy and his own bed. He didn't say anything more until Heath returned with Dr. Merar just a couple minutes later.

"Let me have a look at him," was all Dr. Merar said, and the sheriff let him in the cell block.

They could hear the doctor's voice coming from in there, but not Pitch's, and in a couple more minutes, Dr. Merar came back out.

"He's still not communicating," the doctor said. "You can try to see if you can bring him out, Jarrod, but I want to be there and I might need to be let into the cell, Fred."

Sheriff Madden nodded, and Dr. Merar led Jarrod and the sheriff back into the cell block while Nick and Heath waited in the office, watching and listening through the open cell block door.

Jarrod stopped at the cell and looked down at John Pitch sitting there, staring straight ahead at the wall. He didn't even seem to know anyone was there. "John – " Jarrod said.

Pitch didn't respond in any way.

"John, it's Jarrod Barkley," Jarrod went on. "You know you're in a lot of trouble. I don't know what went on between you and Andrew Bliss, but I did know Bliss, and he was a hard man. I know I left him in a raging mood and that's what you had to deal with when you got there. I'll testify to that. I'll tell the truth about him and about how he was. But John – you didn't deliver my messages to my family and you left them worrying about me for days. I realize you were scared and you weren't thinking straight, and I can forgive that, but you need to apologize for it. You need to apologize to my family for all the needless worry you put them through."

Jarrod waited for a reaction but there wasn't one. Pitch didn't move at all.

Jarrod said, "John, give me something I can say to my mother. You've known her for years. I know you wouldn't want to hurt her, but you did. Just tell me I can tell her you're sorry."

Nothing.

Jarrod took a deep breath. "All right. But keep what I just said in your heart. When you want my mother to know how sorry you are for everything, you let me know. It'll mean the world to her, and to me."

Pitch still didn't move. Jarrod looked at the doctor, who shook his head. Jarrod left the cell block, knowing that Pitch probably hadn't heard a word he said.

"Let's get out of here," Jarrod said to his brothers and led the way out the door.

Jarrod was quiet all the way home, tired and still confused about everything that had happened in the last hour. The shock of finding out that Andrew Bliss had been murdered was more than enough, but to find out his family wasn't getting his messages and were afraid he was on the run from a murder charge – that was too much to process on his weariness and his empty stomach. Add to it the fact that John Pitch, a man he'd known for years, was not only a murderer but a veritable vegetable made Jarrod dizzy. He realized as they pulled into the stable yard at the ranch that he needed to eat something.

But he needed to deal with something else, too, something that still ate at him. Heath dismounted and took his horse straight into the barn, but as Nick climbed down off Coco, Jarrod stayed in the saddle. Nick noticed. He looked up at his older brother and saw the frown even in the soft lamplight. He waited to hear what Jarrod wanted to say.

Jarrod hesitated, looking down at his brother, so tired he wasn't sure he was going to be able to put what he was thinking into words, but he said, "Tell me this, Nick. How long did you think I was on the run?"

Nick hesitated, trying to figure out what to say. "We got up to Lodi and Bob Stone had seen you riding out of town. Up until then, I was scared, but if you let yourself be seen in Lodi, I figured you weren't running. You were up to something else and we just didn't know what it was. I won't lie to you, Jarrod, I still had doubts now and then, but we didn't know what was going on. We only knew what Pitch and Bliss's houseman were saying, that you and Bliss were arguing and after you left, Pitch found him dead."

Jarrod's head was still spinning from everything, and he looked like it.

Nick knew he had to say more. "Jarrod, I know you can murder someone. I can't decide I didn't see what I saw in Rimfire. And maybe I was afraid for a bit off and on that for some reason you did kill Bliss. But I know you're not gonna murder a man without more provocation than any man should have to bear and Bliss couldn't give you that much provocation. We came after you because we were afraid for you, that's all."

Jarrod nodded a little, and he climbed down.

Nick said, "I'll tell you something else, too. You being on the run – when I thought about it, really thought about it, I knew you'd never do that. If you had known what was going on down here with Bliss, you'd have come back to face it. You'd have faced it from the start and not left at all."

"You're right, I'd have faced it," Jarrod said. "And I'm sorry, Nick. This has all been a shock and I'm tired and cranky. What I'm really sorry about is that I didn't leave a message with my secretary that Bliss wanted to see me about taking on a trial for him in Woodland. We could have avoided all this if I had just left her a note, or left her Bliss's note. You'd have known where I was."

"Next time," Nick said.

"Next time," Jarrod said.

They led their horses into the barn, and coming from the bunkhouse, a stable hand followed them in and took over tending for their horses and for Heath's. They went into the house, to be greeted by their mother and sister in the foyer. Victoria went to Jarrod again, and Jarrod took her in his arms and kissed her forehead. "Did you see John Pitch?" she asked.

"Yes, but he's not talking, to anyone about anything," Jarrod said. "I'm afraid the doctor is going to end up having him committed."

"That's just so sad," Audra said.

"I don't think he can handle everything he's done," Jarrod said. "Have you had dinner?"

"No, we held it until you came home," Victoria said.

"I for one could eat a bear," Heath said.

"Not before I eat it," Nick said, and the two of them offered an arm to Audra.

Audra smiled and took each of her brother's arms. They escorted her like gentlemen into the dining room.

Jarrod said, "Let me go clean up quickly and I'll meet you in the dining room. I've still got half the road from Woodland all over me."

"Don't be long," Victoria said. "I want to celebrate you coming home safely, and this being over."

Jarrod smiled and gave her a kiss before hurrying up the stairs.

XXXXX

Sometimes you get to the truth but you never get to the details. Sometimes the reasons a man does what he does stay mysteries. John Pitch did not come out of his blank state, and Dr. Merar petitioned to have him committed to the insane asylum within days. Jarrod went to the hearing. Pitch still did not say a word to anyone. He was found unfit to stand trial for Bliss's murder, and he was led out and off to the insane asylum with all the unanswered questions remaining unanswered.

"I'm sorry," Victoria said to her eldest when he told her about the hearing.

"There's nothing to be sorry about, not for me," Jarrod said. "For John Pitch, yes. He may never come out of this state, and it's a terrible end for a man who lived a good life up until now."

"Are we certain he killed Andrew Bliss?"

Jarrod nodded. "Earl Johnson has never varied from his account about what happened that morning. We've contacted the telegrapher in Woodland and verified that the telegrams I sent you were received at the telegrapher's here, and it was John operating the telegraph at the time, so it's clear he just destroyed them. And he ran, and he shut down. Why he did what he did, why he killed Bliss, why he didn't just run right away or even a day or two later – we'll never know. He wasn't thinking straight, and now he's not thinking at all."

Victoria sighed and squeezed Jarrod's hand. "I'm just glad this is over and you're home safe."

Jarrod lifted her hand and kissed it. "Me, too. And I'm glad it turned out that I didn't disappoint you again."

Victoria didn't know what to say. She wished she could say that she had never doubted him, but she knew that, deep inside, at more than one point, she had doubted him. Except for maybe Audra, they all had doubted him. She didn't know how to tell him that.

Jarrod let her off the hook with a smile and another kiss on the hand. "Life goes on, Mother, and I know I complicated mine and gave you plenty of reason to wonder what I'd have done in a situation like this – "

"No, no, Jarrod," Victoria said. "We should have trusted you more."

"It's all right that you didn't," Jarrod said. "I still have to win that trust back, and I'll do it. Believe me on that, even if you can't believe me on other things yet."

Victoria did believe him. She nodded. "It's a long road back from Rimfire, for all of us, but I do believe we'll all get home."

Jarrod smiled. "We will. Every single one of us."

The End


End file.
